LAKE HAVASU CITY, Ariz. -- Driving out West along the Colorado River, there are a mess of dams creating beautiful azure lakes that reflect the mountains. It's great hiking terrain, which is what drew me here.

But those dams also allow cities to spring up where they never were meant to be. We weren't really meant to tame the desert and make it a playground for millions. The further south you go, the more of a pathetic trickle the Colorado becomes. The mighty river no longer flows into the ocean in Mexico, which has wreaked havoc on its agriculture and population, making the United States an even more desirable destination for the destitute.

However miserable Michigan winters are, there's a reason why people settled here: Water and lots of it. The kind of thing that makes living, you know, sustainable.

Many urban planners and conservationists now see water replacing oil as the new precious commodity this century. It's conceivable that the next wars will be fought over the wet stuff. Arizona, California and New Mexico are all struggling with droughts, but it's not just the Southwest. Atlanta and parts of the Old South are drying up as, well.

To try and stave off thirsty states from poaching our Great Lakes gold, Michigan and seven other states, along with two Canadian provinces last year signed a landmark water compact. But there are loopholes and this won't be the end.

Many Southern and Western members of Congress just turned their backs on the Midwest in their gleeful rejection of the Big Three auto loan. Well, boys and girls, we have what you need. And when your water supply runs out in the next decade or two, don't come crying to us. We might have been shortsighted and put all our eggs in the automotive industry. But at least we weren't stupid enough to live in places we couldn't survive.